Sour start for Corsairs

A first-half lemon almost turned into a sweet piece of watermelon in UMass Dartmouth's opener Friday night in the UMD Basketball Classic at the Tripp Athletic Center.

ED COLLINS

DARTMOUTH — A first-half lemon almost turned into a sweet piece of watermelon in UMass Dartmouth's opener Friday night in the UMD Basketball Classic at the Tripp Athletic Center.

The Corsairs put a dreadful first half behind them and made a strong push, but they were unable to finish off a spirited comeback down the stretch in a 65-61 loss to Wheaton.

UMD shot 23 percent from the floor in the first half and made only two of 15 3-pointers en route to falling behind 30-20 at the break.

But, some good outside shooting by junior guard John Genkos and 10 second-half points by 6-foot-7 sophomore center Alex Rodrigues helped the Corsairs start clawing their way back into the game.

They pulled to within 59-54 on a basket by sophomore guard Mike Rotondo and a Genkos 3-pointer made it a 60-58 game with 21.6 seconds left to play.

Rotondo then got a hand on the Lyons' inbounds pass and Genkos ended up with a good look on a baseline trey that would have given the Corsairs a one-point lead. The shot didn't go down though, and coming out of a timeout, Wheaton's Jaycob Morales made one free throw to give his team some breathing room at 61-58.

The Corsairs pulled to within 61-60 on two foul shots by Genkos with 11.4 seconds remaining, but Morales made two more free throws to make it a 63-60 game and the Lyons made two more free throws to one by UMD in the final five seconds to cap the scoring.

"We have a new group of players that has to get used to playing with each other," UMD coach Brian Baptiste said. "I was disappointed with our effort in the first half, but we played with a lot more intensity and scored some points off turnovers in the second half. It was our first game, so I can't be too hard on them. We'll be looking to shoot the ball a lot better when we get back on the court (today)."

Genkos finished with a game-high 23 points for the Corsairs. The Lyons were led by some balanced scoring from 6-5 sophomore forward Ryan Clinesmith (12 points), 6-6 senior forward Phil Gensicki (12 points), and Morales, a sophomore guard who finished with 10 points.

UMD will take on Trinity in today's 6 p.m. consolation game. Worcester State, which notched a 103-93 overtime win over Trinity in the early game on Friday, will match up against Wheaton in the tournament's 4 p.m. championship game.